Box Score

LEXINGTON, Va. – A strong defensive effort propelled UNC-Greensboro (UNCG) to a 72-56 victory over the VMI men's basketball team Saturday afternoon in a Southern Conference game from Cameron Hall.

The Spartans forced the Keydets into just 35 percent shooting overall (18-52), 28 percent from three-point range (10-36) and 15 turnovers.

Junior guard Kamdyn Curfman posted the first double-double of his career with 16 points and a game-best 10 rebounds while senior center Jake Stephens scored a game-high 22 points for VMI. Sean Conway contributed eight points and nine rebounds and Brennan Watkins had six points.

UNCG led 20-18 with 6:24 left in the first half and closed on a 16-7 run to enter intermission with a 36-25 advantage. The closest the Keydets could get in the second half was seven points.

Kobe Langley paced UNCG (9-5/1-1) with 18 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Kaleb Hunter had 15 points and De'Monte Buckingham compiled 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals. Bas Leyte added 11 points and five rebounds. The Spartans had 12 steals on the afternoon.

VMI (9-7/2-2) travels to Mercer University Thursday for another conference game at 7 p.m.

Quotes from head coach Dan Earl:
"Tough every which way. That wasn't a fun game. Certainly missed shots, but you've got to give UNCG credit. They made it tough for us and contested shots certainly and they were just the more physical team, unfortunately, whether it was on the boards - they had 12 offensive rebounds, we had six, we turned the ball over 15 times and were able to only force two turnovers. When the other team is getting a ton more shot attempts against you, you really stress yourself to make shots and shoot a great percentage because you have less shot attempts and we didn't shoot well today. That was the recipe for a long day."
 
"They had that three-quarter court press and we didn't turn it over against that directly but it slowed us down quite a bit and then again, credit to UNCG. Mike Jones does a really good job, especially defensively. We weren't able to get it out and go fast like we want to. I thought we were tentative attacking it. When they're able to load up defensively in the half court the whole game, that does not play into what we would like to do ideally."